Factorio effect
by IansInsane
Summary: Setting of from the Citadel, a newly minted Spectre and on the hunt for Saren. Shepard comes across a hidden relay. On the other side is a system with a single inhabitant, building an endless factory. Taken from his home he works tirelessly onwards to defeat the Reapers and save the galaxy. Self Insert, OC/Shepard.
1. Chapter 1

Sleeping is such a waste of time. I'd never realized how much time sleeping wasted until after I stopped needing sleep. Working tirelessly on endless belts, pipes, and factories under the light of a foreign sun. Sitting atop a stonewall I observed my latest creation of conveyors, assembly machines, and inserters. Through my helmets audio filters the sweet discordant symphony of ever working machines sang to me, everything working perfectly as intended. Nodding to myself I hopped lightly off my stony perch onto the dusty concrete ground below, to either side of me large skeletal turrets panned side to side their elegant blue barrels scanning for targets on the rocky horizon. Briefly rolling my shoulders I began walking towards the center of my 'factory', the assistive motors in my suits arms and legs whirring softly as moved. All around me assemblers and inspectors endlessly toiled, various ingots of various metals, and materials of every kind being moved and used to create various other products and components. Substations wirelessly feeding the power hungry machines. As my Factory worked around me and I walked mindlessly onward, I slipped into my own mind. Thinking back to how I arrived here, why I was building this endless, sprawling factory.

* * *

I was once again forgoing sleep, although it had obviously taken its toll on me. Brown eyes were lidded and bagged as the white glow of my desktop lit up my face. My computer was the only light in the room, the solitary window in the room wide open admitting a cool breeze and showing a dark moonless night. I was intently working away at my newest addiction, Factorio. A game that while in Alpha was so full and complex it had me completely enthralled. I watched as my little engineer ran through my massive mess of belts, mechanical inserters, and bulky assemblers. I had been working on this particular factory for some twelve hours, wasting away a perfectly good Saturday stopping only for food and the bathroom. Everything was progressing as normal, spawning in, getting in my initial production lines, killing bugs, and doing research. While this factory was different it wasn't unique. Until a second player logged in.

I was never a socialite, even online I had few friends, being an introvert who all to often fell into his own little world meant I eventually drifted away from anyone I connected to. In turn it meant I always played games alone it simply felt better that way, people were to distracting for me. I had never even played a multi player game in Factorio before, but I knew it required a multi player sever, which I was not playing on. Blinking I leaned forward to scrutinize my screen, tired eyes squinting at the name of the new player.

&̖̠̬̯̦͂͂̇̊ͨͦ͐ͅE̢̱͕̰̪̥̹̹̼̜̍̿̿̊̀ͨ̆ͬ͟{E̡ͤͮ̊̾Iͥ̍̀͆̚V̸͖͎͖̖̆̋̿̌̿ͨͅͅ ̙̬̲̥͓̐͂̈ͭ̀̚͟R̡͉̫̝͙̳̊̊͒͗̿̆

I recoiled from my screen hands flying to my eyes. Nearly falling from my chair as it tipped in response.

"Arhg!" I moaned rubbing the heels of my palms into my eyes, what felt like red hot railroad spikes jammed through my corneas and into my skull, setting my brain ablaze. I swallowed down a choked breath with gasp. Bringing my head down to my table less then gently, I cradled my aching head in my hands. The world seemed to disappear; my everything was white-hot pain.

 **"Hello."** The words soothed my impossible agony immediately, wiping away the pain and the daze that normally followed, but in turn filled me with shock. Now that I was no longer detached from reality I instantly realized something was wrong. My hands still covered my eyes, which in turn were closed, but I could still see the unmistakable glow of sunlight through them as well as feel it's warmth on my skin. I was still siting in my office chair, but now I could feel warm sands beneath my bare feet, I had been taken from one place to a completely different one without even realizing it.

 **"Hmm, are you alright?"** The voice repeated, now that I could properly focus on it I realized it to was completely wrong. It sounded… alien, not a green man from mars alien, but something so completely different from anything else I had no words to describe it. My mind grasped, scrambled to make sense of it. Old, not the coarse gravely drawls of a wizened grandfather, but a voice that conveyed countless eons of experience, one that had experienced everything a hundred thousand times. I could hear curiosity, but not concern. The owner of this voice knew I was I no true danger, but was simply curious. Perhaps it had not realized or anticipated the shock I was going through. And finally it was… an it, I could not describe it in any other way, but as voice that completely lacked gender, a voice somehow completely neutral yet conveying emotion.

Slowly moving my hands away from my face I opened my eyes. The light reflecting off the sand around my feet should have blinded my dark adjusted eyes, and the sunlight itself should have made it so hot as to be scathing, but it seemed no more than a gentle glow and a comforting warmth around my feet.

 **"Well, I hope the trip was not to… jarring."** A shiver ran down my spine, both disturbed and strangely comforted by the impossible voice. My eyes darted up as far as they could without moving my head. There at the edge of my vision were the bottoms of black… robe? Well whatever the article of clothing was, it was pitch black, as though it absorbed the very light it self, and it pooled slightly concealing the figures feet.

 **"Maybe I should have used a… gentler mode of transportation."** I could somehow hear the frown the figure was wearing, and a faint undertone of… disappointment? I paused for second blinking and looking back down to the earth below me before taking in a deep calming breath. Exhaling slowly I straightened in my chair, placed my hands on my knees, and looked chin high to the being before me.

It was taller than I would have thought, at least seven foot tall, and fairly broad. Covered entirely in a pitch-black robe, it's arms, if it had any, were completely enveloped by the figures voluminous robes. Further up, sitting on its shoulders and draped with this strange material was the beings head, where its face should be was a void. A lack of light, where there was such pure darkness nothing could be discerned. And to the left of the figure seemingly resting on its shoulder was a large white star, despite looking almost directly at it there was no glare. The sky was sky blue at the horizons and almost black as night above me, stars shining brightly all around.

 **"So I see you are as strong as I expected."** The voice sounded please, the frown hew was wearing having disappeared. I took in another deep breath before speaking "Well I- I don't know what to say." It was the true, I had no clue as to what was going on. **"Good I would have been worried if you did."** I could here the smirk in its voice, but I wasn't to bother. I just wanted to know what the hell was going on. **"Well you're probably confused about all this, so let me explain."** It turned slightly, an arm emerging from a large fold in its robes before waving it behind itself. An ornate wooden armchair appearing in the sands. It sat down slowly, its other arm appearing to help lower itself into the chair before 'looking' to me, my face naturally neutral. **"I am Death"**

* * *

Disclaimer: I own Literally nothing

 **Edit: 6/15/17**

AN: This is my first story ever, and the first Factorio fic on this site. Um I hope you enjoy and please do leave some reviews if you notice anything out of place. I don't have a beta and feedback is always appreciated.

A Hui Hou


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

 **Edit:6/15/17**

 **AN: Yeah these are gonna be up here now. Thank you for coming back to this story! I'm really glad more than a hundred people took a look. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Peace out! Wait! Reviewers!**

 **MangaLover521: THANK YOU!?**

 **On with the show!  
** **  
**

* * *

" _ **Well you're probably confused about all this, so let me explain."**_ _It turned slightly, an arm emerging from a large fold in its robes before waving it behind itself. An ornate wooden armchair appearing in the sands. It sat down slowly, its other arm appearing to help lower itself into the chair before 'looking' to me, my face naturally neutral._ _ **"I am Death"**_

* * *

Outwards my face remained in its neutral state, my eyebrows and lips slightly downturn in a light frown, belaying very little emotion other than my initial confusion. Inwards was pretty similar, there was no point in denying it. I had always been very nonchalant about pretty much everything. And I doubted this was a dream, I hadn't had a dream for years, and certainly not one this lucid. My mind was slowly spooling up, I moved my mindset from mindless building to hard deductions. If this being before me was Death, it probably wanted something from me. While I have lived a pretty unhealthy life, I was still a fit young man whose worst sickness was a week long case of the flu. 'Think, think…' what could give me a hint as to what the fuck was going on… The second player. Outwardly my eyes widened slightly before narrowing. Of course, how could I forget? A second player joining my single player game with a name that sent railroad spikes though my eyes.

 **" Well? Are you done staring at me?"** 'Deaths' words snapped me out of my internal deductions faint amusement betraying a smirk. I had been staring at 'Death' the entire time. My frown deepened slightly, I was on a serious back foot. I was in unfamiliar territory, exhausted from severe lack of sleep, and suffering from a complete lack of information.

"Sorry just getting my bearings. Please explain." A polite apology, and a fairly benign dig for information, hitching off 'Deaths' earlier intent for giving answers. 'Death' nodded before speaking, I noticed neither that while it spoke neither its face nor shoulders moved.

 **"I need you to do something."** I internally nodded, glad I had at least deduced that much. I gestured for 'Death' to contin-

 ***BEEP* *** **BEEP** *** *** **BEEP** *****

* * *

An alarm shook me from reverie. I froze, mid step somewhere near the center of my factory. Surrounded by noisy assemblers, whooshing inserters, and belts upon belts of materials. Alarms weren't particular unusual, there were ones that signaled an odd discovery, others that alerted me of a malfunctioning or broken machinery, and a fairly common one that means a strain or lack of materials. However this one, was one that had never sounded before. My eyes flitted to the left of my HUD, there below my suits integrity meter, personal statuses, and bodily condition was blue exclamation point with the helpful tag of **"Relay Activating"**.

I paused for a moment. There was only one person who would be coming through the singular Relay of this system right now. I had been guaranteed that 'She' would be the first person to find the Relay paired with my own, and fairly early in her adventure as well. However I for the sake of the plans I was going to set in motion, I had to react as though 'They' were coming instead. Looking to the top right of my HUD I checked the time 7:46PM, taking note I looked below the time and mentally chose a destination on my mini map located there towards a specific cluster of orbital cannons I had prepared for this exact occasion, it was located roughly ten kilometers northeast of my main factory and two kilometers to the south of a set of landing bays I had also prepared for the event. I allowed my suit assistive motors and synthetic muscles work in tandem with my own to run my automatically to my destination. Moving more than hundred klicks per hour whilst weaving with unnatural agility through my maze of machines.

Closing my eyes I partially disconnected from my body, allowing a simpler portion of my psyche to watch over my body, flitting to a nearby communications array and hitching it to it's paired a satellite hovering above it in geosynchronous orbit. From there I hopped to one of many massive offline orbital defense platforms surrounding my main Forge world. Slipping into it I settled into my new synthetic shell, up linking into its defense network that spread through out the entirety of the solar system. I easily took control the millions of turrets, automated defense drones, and the hundreds of other orbital defense platforms surrounding not only my Forge world, but also the five other planets in the solar system which were used for their rich mineral resources and in one case vast abundance of useful gasses. Concentrating I activated each and every one, the vast majority surrounding the Relay on strategically placed asteroids and planetoids. I mentally frowned as the vast Dyson sphere surrounding my systems young white star actually strained under the vast power usage the immense amount of defenses put on the wireless power network. However the power levels stabilized after the initial activation so I 'nodded' in satisfaction, focusing I directed every defense capable of firing towards the now active and spooling Relay, activating the auto target features I placed a strict order to hold fire even if fired upon.

Making a quick double check that everything was in order I slipped out of the now active defense platform and back down to the Forge world below. I bypassed my still running body for now and slipped down into my cyber warfare suite, buried several kilometers below an artificial sea and surrounded by meters of steel. This 'room' several square kilometers in size, was a complete vacuum kept at Zero degrees Celsius and contained the only complex digital computers in the entire solar system completely filled to the brim by monolith after monolith of processors and data banks, holding every technology, schematic and scrap of data I had collected on an off the network data bank. Other than that, roughly three quarters of it was also dedicated to fending off and initiating cyber attacks. Slipping to the main processor almost half a kilometer in size, I powered up the normally inactive cyber suite, and cringed as power levels took a steep decline as thousands of power hungry processors came online. I 'closed' my 'eyes' as a rush of processing power over took me, with this much raw strength, I could punch straight through 'Her' ships cyber defense suite.

Nodding I disconnected another more analytical portion of my psyche to control the cyber suite, and slipped up to the surface the planet and back into my body. Merging seamlessly with portion of myself left inside it. Taking a brief glance at my mini map. I nodded as I started to slow less than a kilo away from my destination. Taking a mental glance through a rear camera on my helmet I look back at the vast factory behind me, backlit by the Dyson covered sun slowly making its way to the horizon. Narrowing my eyes slightly I concentrated and immediately a dark green dome comprised of many, many hexagons and crackling with electricity snapped into existence completely covering the entire factory, nodding I closed my eyes and activated similar shields all across the solar system, over strategic strongholds filled with defense systems, vital other factories and mines, and one massive shield encompassing the entirety of the suns Dyson sphere. My body stopped abruptly and my eyes snapped open. Tilting my head up I looked the massive orbital cannons before me. Each had fifty meter long barrels fairly large at the base and narrowing at the tip, with several gemstone lenses each, designed for maximum distance and firepower at the cost of insane power needs.

Walking steadily to the earth embedded base of the nearest cannon I entered the usually unused manual control center. It was a small room maybe ten square meters in size with two main screens, one on the wall where the cannon is oriented and one directly below it acting as desk like strategic map. Meticulously cleaned by automated drones the neon blue displays sprang to life as I manually powered up the powerful cannon and all its surrounding partners, slaving them to this ones control. That done I insured that all the cannons were properly aimed at the Relay many hundreds of thousands kilometers away, before taking step away from the consoles and leaning against the far wall, arms crossed. Taking in a deep breath I glanced to the top right of my HUD above my mini map to check the time 7:54PM. Eight minutes I nodded to myself that was a good time. Closing my eyes and deepening my frown into a full on glare I began taking in short savage breaths, bringing up wrathful emotions. My lips parted in a savage snarl as I sank myself into the persona of a wrathful sole survivor ready to bring vengeance on my fallen brethren.

 ***BEEB** *** *BEEB* *BEEP* *BEEP***

Snapping out of my self induced rage, I portioned off the wrathful emotions I had gathered carefully into a separate persona that would act as my greeting call as 'She' entered the system. Finally looking to the still beeping alarm I was informed that 'She' would shortly be entering the system. Despite my system being about sixty light years from the only system that could access it, the unique Relays had propelled 'Her' ship at vastly faster speeds, even faster than 'They' could. Pushing myself off the wall I strode over to the weapons consoles, placing my hands on either side of the strategic map, I insured everything was exactly as I had prepared it before looking up to the console for the cannon itself. My eyes narrowed as I gazed unblinking at the screen waiting fo- There! The Relay shined with it's unearthly blue glow, brightening for a second before dimming as it spat out a black and white frigate, small and sleek, it was roughly two hundred meters long with two engines on either side. On its side emblazoned in white, underlined in crimson. Read Normandy and on the wing below it continued SR1.

* * *

 **AN(Cont.): Sorry just a little more. Here are some things you may want to look at just to give some perspective. Copy and enjoy!**

Planet side orbital cannon: /D3mtF1S

Orbital defenses: assets/95744/Orbital_Defense_Station_

Automated drones: ec6f/th/pre/f/2015/337/f/3/fleet_by_

Dyson Sphere: . /i/pix/2015/06/05/15/296172C900000578-3112426-image-a-3_

Laser turrets: /upload/image/media/karanak/dred_

 **A Hui Hou**


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I Don't own Mass Effect

 **Edit: 6/15/17**

 **AN: Yo! Third chapter, some more stuff is gonna get revealed and I've actually gone and brought in the Normandy. Also some more scenes with 'Death', and now Reviewers.**

 **Frankieu: Thanks! I hope it keeps your interest!**

 **Zealous Specter: Ooops sorry about that, I went ahead and put it on my  
profile, thanks for the tip.**

 **: I hope you like it.**

 **Now! To the story!**

* * *

 _The Relay shined with it's unearthly blue glow, brightening for a second before dimming as it spat out a black and white frigate, small and sleek, it was roughly two hundred meters long with two engines on either side. On its side emblazoned in white, underlined in crimson. Read Normandy and on the wing below it continued SR1._

* * *

My heart rate rose, this time unintentionally. This was it! The entire reason I was here to begin with, now the quest tasked onto me by 'Death' truly began. As I gazed blindly at the image of the Normandy before me I felt myself slip back into my own mind without my consent.

* * *

I gestured for 'Death' to continue. Leaning forward slightly in my chair, hands still on my knees as a soft breeze blew past. Ruffling my hair and clothes slightly, but leaving 'Deaths' attire untouched.

 **"You are familiar with the concept of the multiple reality concept correct?"** shivers ran down my spine once more at 'Deaths' alien voice, although noticeably less so than previous times. I nodded stoically as they passed, my eyes remaining locked on 'Deaths' 'face'. The multiple reality theory had always fascinated me, the thought of leaving my rather ordinary world for one of amazing technology or magic was one of my biggest wishes, most definitely one of the reasons I loved gaming and reading so much. If 'Death' had brought it up then-! My heart began beating faster, my eyes widened, did 'Death' bring me here to solve a problem in another world?! Another dimension?! Was this my chance to leave my mundane world behind for one of amazing magic and technological wonders?!

 **"I'm glad to see you figured out your purpose here so quickly."** 'Death' interrupted my fantasy, sounding rather pleased, but I could not bring myself to be bothered. My mind raced a thousand thoughts a second, the infinite number of worlds that I could see! I shake my head vigorously, forcing myself from my fantasies. Now was the absolute last time to wrap myself up in my own world. Looking back to 'Death' I saw it looking at me with what I could Feel was amusement.

"So you're sending me off to some far flung world, why?" I asked, trying and failing to keep my eagerness from my voice. 'Death' nodded, flowing robes of void making strange shapes to the eyes as it shifted.

 **"I need you to break something for me."** My eyes narrowed, I didn't like the sound of that. It sounded like 'Death' was dancing around something I wouldn't like.

"…" I kept quiet, allowing 'Death' to continue.

 **"…"** It sat quiet before me, the both off us silent as a breeze once again blew between us. I sighed closing my eyes and hanging my head, breaking the silence. Before snapping my head up to stare piercingly at 'Death'.

"Well, what is it I'm not going to like about this?" my voice was low and dangerous, my earlier exuberance had evaporated quickly at how 'Death' was acting, suspicion settling in. 'Death' sighed as well, but seemed otherwise unaffected at my actions

" **I need you to stop Shepard from initiating synthesis within the crucible."** The words were said swiftly yet clearly, however even so I barely heard them. The Crucible? Shepard? Fuck! I bowed my head glaring at the sands below bringing my hands from my knees to cradle my face resting my elbows in their position instead. That was the absolute last place I wanted to be booted to. A shit version of the Force that required a chip in the skull, a bunch a racist aliens that were either condescending assholes or treated humans like infants, oh and of course who could forget the insane genocidal robot squids. There was from realistically very little I could do to change anything with minimal gains and very high risks.

 **"I can tell you're worried, don't be. It's not as bad as you think."** 'Deaths' voice calmed me, slowing my racing thoughts, and allowing me to think logically again. Keeping my head bowed, I allowed the glare to ease off my face and began taking deep rhythmic breaths

"Speak" I said evenly as I continued my calming technique.

 **"You will not be dropped randomly or confused into the 'Mass Effect Verse' as it is. I will be placing you into a position where you can build enough power in order to tip the balance of power significantly into Shepards favor."** It was the longest thing 'Death' had ever said and though I was not looking at it I knew it had not moved throughout the entire conversation, nor had it paused for breath. I paused my breathing for a moment to digest this new information. That at least assuaged my initial fears, I would not be dropped ass first into the Citadel nor have to deal with bullshit politics… I frowned slightly, at least I hopped I wouldn't. Sighing once more I looked up to face 'Death' once more, intertwining my fingers and resting my chin on my knuckles.

"Okay so how exactly will I be 'stopping Shepard from initiating synthesis'?" I asked tiredly. Despite this conversation lasting only… I glanced at the sun over 'Deaths' shoulder, it had not moved even budge during this entire conversation. Closing my eyes and mentally shaking my head I put the odd fact from my mind before looking back to 'Death'. 'Death' stared at me for a few moments, as if making sure I want going to zone out on it as it explained. Rolling my eyes I gave 'Death' a pointed look. It didn't show any reaction other than speaking.

" **Factorio, a game in which a single person can harvest, research, and create an incredible amount different materials, weapons, and machines. You were playing it when I brought you here."** Despite not being very clear, I understood what 'Death' was getting at.

"You're going to give me a factory to build things with?" I grimaced, while I did love Factorio when compared to the Mass effect universe it was woefully underpowered. The only real thing it would have over the technology of Mass Effect was the laser tech, but that only applied to turrets unle-

 **"I will be providing you with advanced technologies to use, also you will find your factories will be on a much larger scale than in your videogame."** 'Death' seemed to follow my train of though and knew what would reassure me. Mollified I turned my eyes down to the sands below me, mind spinning up once more. Depending on the technologies 'Death' would be providing with me it could indeed greatly improve the odds in my favor. Even something as simple as a handheld laser weapon would be an insane advantage in the Mass Effect universe, a weapon able to pierce any shield in the galaxy and something I could mass-produce using a completely autonomous factory would do wonders against anything Shepard came up against. I look back up to 'Death'

"Factories?" I asked. "How much room and resources will I have access to?" I continued before 'Death' could answer.

 **"I wouldn't worry about that, you'll have an entire solar system at your disposal."** My eyes widened and I took a sharp inhale of breath before looking away, to the horizon of this strange place. An entire solar system? That was an insane amount of resources, more than I could use in a lifetime. I frowned once more before looking to 'Death' speaking coolly and seriously

"I don't think the Council would enjoy a human building a huge amount of factories for the express purpose of supplying Humanity for a full scale total war very much." 'Death' Chuckled completely still before answering-

 ***BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP***

* * *

Another alarm knocked me from my reverie, this time signaling the Normandy was beginning to turn away from the system, trying to flee back towards the relay. Shit! I looked to left of my HUD seeing several other alerts, one that sounded when the Normandy began scanning the systems, and a hailing alert. Fuck! I had been caught up in my thoughts for to long, but this wasn't the end of the world. I had been planning to ignore any hails anyways, but I had hoped to do this before they started fleeing. Bowing my head and closing my head, I allowed my persona of anger and vengeance to take over. My pulse raced, adrenaline began flowing, and a viscous snarl overtook my face. Fully immersing myself into the mindset of vengeful warrior a slammed my hand onto the strategic screen below me, manually targeting all my defense systems to the fleeing Normandy, and a sweep of my hand ordered a quarter of the fighter drones in the system to congregate around the Relay, more than a million twenty meter laser firing, missile towing fighters swarmed around the Relay in an impenetrable cloud of death. Mentally triggering my cyber warfare suite, I used it to punch straight through the Normandy's cyber defenses, invading its data banks, I ordered it to copy all the information onboard before creating a language translator immediately. Activating it as soon as it became available, I forcefully opened communications with the Normandy and roared **"Do not flee Abomination, Come and let me send you to 'Death' as you did my people. Face me and die!"** leaving the communications channel open I slammed my other hand into the console before me, firing my orbital cannon and the others directly around me at the Normandy with a low rumbling thrum, lasers whipping so quickly they reached Normandy near immediately. Deliberately missing the Normandy itself, but hitting their shield allowing them to see how the bright blue lasers passed through their shields unmolested. Pulling my hand back I allowed the cannons to rearm themselves as I waited for the Normandy to respond. I few seconds later the still open comms channel crackled to life "Cease fire! Cease fire! We're non hostile Cease fire!" I internally grinned as Jennifer Hales voice came over the voice channel, not quite desperate, but most definitely distressed. Here it was, the beginning of the end of the Reapers.

* * *

 **AN: Yay! Shepards finally here! 'Death' and I had some weird conversations. I hope this chapter wasn't to confusing (It didn't seem to me) but go ahead and tell me off if it was. It's not very clear, but we're still in the prologue, well we're in the end of the prologue. The next chapter will most likely last off the prologue and the beginning of longer chapters. After all, these first ones had an entirety of Two characters in it. One of which was only in flashback. So look forward to Normandy's perspective next chapter.**

 **A Hui Hoi**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

 **AN: I'm sick as FU***K. pretty much this past week and a half I've been plagued wit coughs and congestion, but I was already about halfway through this chapter so it wasn't to bad. Anyways this is a much bigger chapter as it not only marks the end of the Prologue, but also has much more people… like a lot.**

 **Reviewers!**

 **Frakieu: whoops that was a typo. Thanks I'm a dumbass so I need people to point that stuff out.**

 **Zealous Spector: Thank you, and I honestly have no idea why I wasn't doing that anyways. I've read so many books yet I forgot that one thing, I am shame.**

 **Neobenm: OKAY!**

 **Pyrothekid: Okay I've been waiting for some heavy feedback. And thank you for being honest, I know I'm not very good.**

 **First: Yes I am a bad writer. Also I'm ashamed at the fact I completely forgot about line breaks between dialogue and I will be going back to fix all of that.**

 **Second: The distinction between past and present should be fairly clear, if you could, be more specific as to what is confusing.**

 **Third: Okay so I can't really answer this without spoilers, but I built that up for a specific reason, and I designed it to be explained in a future chapter. Don't worry it shouldn't be too cheese (I hope). There is a good reason (or at least I thing it's good) as to why he can split his mind. The whole 'Death' flashbacks are meant to build suspense and slowly, deliberately create background. And I have what I hope is an interesting reason behind 'Death' actions.**

 **Fourth & Fifth: All of this is built up so it can be experienced and explained from a different perspective, he would have no reason to describe every little thing around him unless he's focusing on it because he's seen it all a thousand times before. A lot more of the setting and various other things like his suit and such will be described in depth soon. From Shepards point of view, one of the things I dislike about some stories is where they just dump massive amounts of descriptions without context.**

 **I really appreciate the review it's nice to able to explain some of my thought process from time to time, keeps me on track.**

 **Now onto the Chapter!**

* * *

"Cease fire! Cease fire! We're non hostile Cease fire!" I internally grinned as Jennifer Hales voice came over the voice channel, not quite desperate, but most definitely distressed. Here it was, the beginning of the end of the Reapers.

* * *

The quiet made it hard to sleep. On every other ship I had served on, military or not the engines had always been humming, or in some cases rumbling, on in the background. The Normandy however was different from any other ship she had served on, the first stealth ship in existence and built with the cooperation of both Turian and Human minds it was a step towards reconciling their two species. Despite its size the Tantalus drive core was almost completely silent, even when standing next to it in the engineering deck it was little more than a quiet hum.

I rolled to my side from my back, staring at the utilitarian closets beside my bed. Sighing I rolled over again, trying to reach a comfortable position on the small bed. Sighing again I rolled somewhat gracefully off the bed. My toes curling at the cool metal flooring, I gave a final sigh before quickly changing from my sleeping clothes.

"Shepard? Up already? You still have about six ours of rack time" Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko's voice greeted me immediately after entering the mess. Now clad in dark navy blues. He was in what seemed his favorite spot in the ship. A small out of the way nook near between the sleeping pods and what passed as the mess hall. Currently he was sat up in one of the comfortable reclined seats a questioning look on his face. His omni tool was on, video game paused on screen.

"Can't sleep, figured I might as well do something instead of just staring at the inside of my eyelids." Despite my fatigue, my voice barely conveyed any exhaustion placating the inquisitive Lieutenant. Kaiden nodded leaned back into his seat before pausing and looking back at me.

"By the way doctor T'soni woke up an hour or two ago. Came out of the med bay for some food before returning." He informed me gesturing with his head to said med bay across the deck. "She mentioned she wanted to talk to you, probably about the molding thing. I was going to wake you, but figured you'd be sleeping. Guess I was wrong." I chuckled quietly.

"It's called 'Melding', but thanks for the heads up. And I appreciate the thought, even if I wasn't sleeping." I said sincerely with smile as I walked past, I was going kill time by going deck, by deck making sure everything was all right, but this was probably a better use of my time.

Crossing the deck quickly I entered Med bay. Doctor Karin Chakwas looked up from the computer on her desk, sharp eyes recognizing my fatigue instantly.

"Shouldn't you be asleep Commander?" she asked curtly, an eyebrow rising in emphasis as she lifted her hands from the holographic keyboard to cross them over her chest. I smiled sheepishly lifting my hands in helpless gesture before answering, "Couldn't sleep, to much has been going on lately." Chakwas, sighed uncrossing her arms before standing. She crossed the Med bay in measured steps before placing an arm on my shoulder. "I understand how you feel, really. There's a lot on your plate right now, but not sleeping isn't going to help." She said sincerely looking at me with soft, but stern eyes. I smiled reassuringly at her.

"I know, I was just going to walk around. Maybe try and settle my mind when I head Liara had woken up and wanted to talk to me, figured might as well do that." I said truthfully meeting her gaze. Nodding she withdrew her hand and stopped back.

"Well just make sure to get some sleep afterwards. Liara's in the storage room, she's using the computer back there I think." She said, turning and returning to her desk, resuming whatever activity she had been doing before I had entered. Smiling to myself I nodded to her as I walked through the Med bay to the smaller room at its back.

Liara T'soni was so focused at whatever task she has set herself to, she didn't notice me entering the room. Realizing this I shifted awkwardly before making my self known.

"Ahem." I cleared my throat startling the blue scientist. She recollected herself quickly, turning in her chair to look at me, eyes wide and surprised.

"Shepard! I wasn't expecting you!" She spoke quickly, and somewhat loudly. Clearly surprised by my presence. "I was told you were going to be asleep for a few more hours." That explained it. I gave her a second to calm down before speaking.

"Couldn't sleep, decided to go around and check on the crew, when I heard you were awake and wanted to talk." I explained, leaning against the wall next to the door.

"Oh. Oh! I see, yes I did want to talk to you." She turned fully in her chair to face me. Clearly excited at the prospect about talking about anything Prothean. Smiling I gesturing for her to continue. Nodding she opened up her omni tool, scrolling through it for a few seconds before looking back to me. "I've been taking notes of what I could discern from the… visions you shared with me." She looked back down to her glowing omni tool, eyes flitting over the holographic display. "As you said, I can definitely see destruction and death, but not much else." She closes her eyes and lowers her arm, shaking her head slightly. "It's unclear, not vague, or blurry, but like I'm…" She trails off, probably continuing her train of thought in her own head. I smiled amused before speaking.

"Like you're looking at I the wrong way? Or like listening to a language you don't understand. You just can't comprehend what you're looking at?" She looked up at me smiling.

"Yes exactly! Just like that!" She stood excitedly pacing. "It must be due to the Protheans unique physiology. We know from their Beacons that Protheans had an ability similar to Asari mind melding which is how Beacons work in the first place. It's likely that the only way these beacons worked is through the use of this ability, which is why we cannot completely comprehend this- this message of destruction!" As she ranted, pacing ever faster back and forth, her words grew louder and louder until she was almost shouting. Stopping abruptly she turned to face me, shoulders heaving and wide eyed. I smiled amused before walking up to the still panting Liara and placing my hands on her shoulders just like Chakwas had done minutes ago.

"Calm down, explain what you've figured out and we can work it out together okay?" I spoke softly and calmly. And Liara quickly cooled, she closed her eyes and took deep breaths before looking back to me and smiling.

"Okay." She said softly, taking a step back and bringing up her omni tool again. "From the few details I was able to disce-" Liara was cut off abruptly as the ships internal comms system came to life. Tilting my head I listened intently.

"Ummm, can someone wake up the commander because… I just found something really weird…" Their pilot. Jeff Moreau's voice broadcasted through the room, and assumingly across the ship. I sighed, before looking back at Liara, who had also looked away.

"Well, I should probably see what that's about." I said, genuinely disappointed. Looking back at me, Liara also sighed.

"Yes of course, mean while I'll probably get some more sleep." She said walking over to her desk and shutting down the computer. I made a noise of agreement before exiting the room into the med bay.

Chakwas gave me a pointed look as a passed her in the med bay, followed by a reminder as to how important sleep is. I placated her with a few assurances before continuing into the crew quarters. Kaiden gave me an inquisitive look from across the room before returning to his omni tool and I quickly jogged up the stairs into the first deck, made somewhat more difficult due to my fatigue. I quickly passed by the CIC nodding to Pressly as he worked at his station.

"What's the situation?" I asked as I came to a stop just behind Jokers seat. Breath slightly labored.

"Commander?!" He jumped in his seat, clearly startled. I frowned, I'd been startling people a lot lately. "You sure got here fast." He said frowning over his shoulder at me.

"I was already up." I explained stepping up to stand next to him and crossing my arms. "So, What's the situation?" I repeated scanning the various monitors around the cockpit. Set up roughly ten meters from the nose of the, it's walls were covered in various complex monitors and controls. Recovering quickly from his shock, he shifted slightly before speaking.

"Well, I was just here making sure everything is running smoothly when _that_ came up on the passive scans" He said pointing to a monitor that showed a vague, but distinctly unnatural shape about ten billion kilometers beyond the furthest planet of the solar system. Under it noted that whatever it was was definitely synthetic and about a kilometer long.

"How did we even pick that up?" I asked surprised uncrossing my arms and leaning in to look at the screen, one arm resting on Jokers seat. "That's way beyond our sensor range… isn't it?" I asked turning to Joker, who had begun fiddling with some controls before him.

"Well, the average sensor suite of a military vessel has about a seven billion kilometer range, but this ship was designed using the latest tech of both the Human alliance and the Turian Hierarchy. Add onto to that it's probably the only thing in that direction for hundreds of trillions of kilometers means we picked it up pretty easily." He explained, not looking away from his controls. Nodding, I straightened crossing my arms again.

"So… what is it?" I asked

"Not sure." He said before pausing. "wanna find out?" He asked grinning as he look back at me. I grinned back before answering.

"Hell yeah."

It took two hours of traveling at a comfortable cruising speed to reach the anomalous object. During which I had managed to get some restful sleep, mind focused on something other than Reapers, Saren, and Galactic doom. So when I returned to the cockpit once more I was much more alert. Looking to Joker I noticed he seemed much more alarmed than the last time I was up here.

"What's wrong." I asked brows furrowed in concern. He glanced up at me for e second eyes worried before looking back down at his consoles.

"Well… from what I'm getting." He paused for a second, looking to different display and manipulating a control there. He sighed before leaning back into his seat. "That's a Relay." He said in disbelief.

"A Relay?" I asked immediately in surprise. "But I thought the scans said it was only a kilometer long. Besides, what would a Relay be doing all the way out here?"

"Well the scanners say it's definitely a kilometer long, exactly. And despite its shape being only vaguely similar to most Relays, it's definitely giving off the same readings as one." He answered still reclined in his pilots chair arms crossed.

"Is it active?" I asked scrutinizing the shape on the scanners. It looked less like A Relay and more like a thick geometric tuning fork, straight planes and angular edges, rather than smooth curves.

"No it's inactive at the mom- wait! Power levels are rising, I think it's activating!" He said alarmed. Leaning forward and uncrossing his arms, his hands flew over the consoles before him. Taking a step back, eyes wide in surprise. I let Joker do his work before turning to the side of the cockpit and activating the ship wide comms there.

"Attention! Attention! This Is Shepard! We're about to enter FTL! Brace!" During a standard FTL jump, the change in speeds, while noticeable, was rather inconsequential. However going from dead stop to FTL during an unintentional jump could end in disaster. Reaching over to Jokers seat I activated a specially designed harness for his frail constitution. He barely seemed to acknowledge its presence as he continued to furiously work Normandy's controls.

Turning I ran down the CIC pathway, as the various personnel who worked here strapped in at their stations. I clapped Pressly on the shoulder as I passed him briskly walking up to the command center where a utilitarian chair had extended from the floor, made for situations just like this one. Strapping my self into it I opened several holographic consoles before me. Linking them to Jokers own, I had just enough time to see one of them signal an FTL jump before feeling the ship accelerate so quickly black crept at the edges of my vision. The intense G-forces pressed me into my seat, and I grunted as I felt my consciousness being pulled slowly from me by the pressure. I blearily acknowledged alarms sounding through the CIC as the G-forces mounted.

It seems to go on forever, but probably only lasted a few minutes before stopping abruptly as it started, throwing me forward into the straps of my chair with a grunt and a generous dose of pain. Well that's going to bruise in the morning. Moving the chair straps around as to not cause further pain, I looked back to the still open screens before me. Ignoring the still ongoing alarms. A quick glance told me we had finished our initial acceleration, and had in fact begun slowing down. Frowning, I unstrapped my self and stood, swaying slightly as the aftereffects of the intense G-forces took hold. Shaking my head, I made my way steadily back towards the cockpit.

Pressly ignored me as I passed, he looked unharmed, but alarmed. I would have stopped to see what worried him but Joker would have to be the first priority. As I moved through the CIC towards the cockpit It was relieving to see no one had been injured in a major way, mostly groaning about bruises and being disoriented.

Joker was leaning heavily into his chair when I reached him, heaving shoulders just visible over his chair along with and orange glow. Walking up next him I took in a series of vibrant orange mass effect shields covering entire form. His eyes were lidded, and he stared blankly at the controls before him, panting.

"Joker." I spoke in a hushed tone, trying not to startle him. However that didn't seem to elicit any response from him.

"Joker." I tried louder this time leaning in closer to him.

"…"

"Joker."

"…" This was starting to get irritating.

"Joker!" This time I exclaimed it loudly, leaning down to shake his seat slightly.

"Gah!" That got his attention, I watched as he jolted in his restraints. The mass effect shields keeping him from moving around too much. He looked up at me, face twisted in alarm, before frowning at me.

"Hey what was that for?!" he asked incredulously as he looked back at his controls. Smirking I straightened myself and crossed y arms before answering.

"You weren't hearing me." I explained amused, before becoming serious once more. "What's the situation?".

"Well… we're currently traveling at about… That… That can't be right!" He exclaimed, disengaging his safety harness and leaning forward to stare at his console. "We're… We're going almost a hundred times the speed of Light!" He shouted, eyes wide with surprise as he began manipulating various controls before him.

I gaped at him in shock, arms dropping to my sides numbly. Choking slightly on my own words as I tried to formulate words. "Wha- What do you mean!?" I finally managed to get out. He seemed just as mind boggled as I did, he threw his arms up and looked at me eyes wide before answering.

"I don't know! This- This shouldn't be possible! I just barely managed to keep the Normandy together during that jump!" He sagged into his chair staring blankly at his controls. I shifted awkwardly, glancing over my shoulder at the disoriented bridge crew.

"So… What now?" I ask quietly. He didn't respond. It was almost a minute of awkward silence later before he seemed to snap out of his trance.

"We're slowing down." He said softly. Despite how quite he was I heard him clearly.

"But that means-"

"We've already passed the midway point of this jump." I probably would have been annoyed at being cut off in any other situation, but I couldn't bring myself to care. "On top of that, it means something about that Relay also slowed us down mid jump." He scoffed shaking his head. "Another impossibility." He added on under his breath.

"If we've started slowing down, is it possible you could calculate how long until we reach our destination?" He sighed heavily, before turning to face me, determination clear on his face.

"I can." He said confidently, before turning back to his consoles. Smiling proudly, I patted the back of his chair before turning away and heading towards the CIC.

* * *

 **AN: Well there's the first half of Normandy's perspective, the next one should be coming out pretty soon and start off just where this one ends. Also, I once again apologize for this chapter coming out somewhat late… Even if there isn't really a schedule to these… anyways! Make sure to point out any mistakes and thanks for reading!**

 **A Hui Hoi**


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